Comedian Shore takes a crack at 'Pauly-tics'

10/11/2012

It's political season, which can only mean Pauly Shore.

Wait, wha ... ?

Long past his days of "the weeeeaasssssel" and Encino Man and Son in Law, Shore has been heavily pushing his stand-up career for years. He was a stand-up prior to his MTV appearances and acting gigs, after all. Shore's latest project is Pauly~tics, a new show he's written to riff on all things political in a vein he describes as "Bill Maher meets Spring Break." A Pauly~tics performance was taped in Washington for an hour-long Showtime special to air Oct. 26.

Closer to home, Shore is scheduled to perform at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday at the Funny Bone, 6140 Levis Commons Blvd. in Perrysburg.

Tickets to the 21-and-older shows are $25. For more information, call 419-931-3474 or visit tinyurl.com/8ta98w5.

The 44-year-old recently chatted with The Blade via email to promote his appearance.

Q: Talk about the show and what it's about.

Shore: Pauly Shore's Pauly~tics is a new special where I travel to D.C. to perform stand-up comedy. I also spoke with Larry King about politics, and politicians like Barney Frank, Herman Cain, Ralph Nader, and pundit Michael Steele. It's all fun, though; there's no taking sides.

The cool part is that people can go to paulyshore.com and for just 5 bucks they can pre-order the special right now. And they're entered in a chance to win $100,000. And once I get 100,000 downloads, I can release the $100,000 to a lucky fan.

Q: Other than election season, is there anything that inspired you to create a politically based show?

Shore: I've always been very interested in politics, which is something a lot of people don't know about me. But I'm a news junkie. I can't get enough Al Sharpton!

Q: Do you draw equal material from both sides? Is this show mainly about the presidential race, or does it delve into other issues? If so, what?

Shore: I don't pick sides. I just have fun with everyone. I talk about a lot of very pressing issues. Like, why do women like to sleep with politicians so much? It's a very serious epidemic.

Q: How long did it take to develop the material?

Shore: Making and writing all of the material used in the special was a long process -- about a year. But I still updated my jokes to keep them timely.

Q: As far as I know, people don't associate you with political humor. Why the change to topical material?

Shore: To be quite honest, I've always been into politics, believe it or not. I'm just entertained by them. At night I always channel surf between Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. And I giggle.

Q: Is there anything considered off-limits, such as Obama's race or Romney's religion? Did you find one candidate provided better material than another?

Shore: I wasn't trying to offend anyone; I was just reacting to everything that I was learning about politics. I'm not doing jokes taking stabs at these people. And everyone I talked with was super cool and friendly.

Q: What happens in a month when the election is over? Is the show more or less scuttled, or will it continue in some form?

Shore: Like I said earlier, the show is like Spring Break meets Bill Maher. It was important to me to make a show that will be relevant and funny in the future as well. Like I said, I don't chose a side. I just try to keep it very light.

Q: Do you update the material as it happens? For instance, if one of the candidates flubs during a debate, would that inspire new jokes for the show? Or, is it pretty much set?

Shore: It's set. The special is locked.

Contact Kirk Baird at: kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.